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The Cubs Just Signed Yu Darvish’s All-Time Favorite Catcher

By
Aldo Soto
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Chris Gimenez is a 35-year-old catcher, who has played in a total of 366 MLB games, but he might be the final piece in the Chicago Cubs plan to sign Yu Darvish. The Cubs have reportedly signed the journeyman catcher to a minor-league deal, but there could be more to this acquisition.

Ken Rosenthal added that Gimenez has a good shot to make the Cubs 25-man roster as the backup to Willson Contreras.

Those chances become higher if the Cubs do end up signing Darvish and that’s because Gimenez is apparently really close to the pitcher and is his favorite catcher.

I don’t think Gimenez is going to be the most important part of the Cubs’ pitch to Darvish, but it certainly has to help, right? The ironic part is that Gimenez was let go by the Minnesota Twins, who are also trying to sign Darvish. Imagine if this does become the difference, though, that’d be pretty funny.

Gimenez has spent his entire MLB career in the American League, playing for the Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers and the Twins. He has a career slash line of .218/.309/.345. Last year with Minnesota, Gimenez hit seven home runs and had a pretty good .350 OBP in 186 at bats.

 

I know there are several Cubs fans, myself included, that were looking forward to possibly seeing Caratini up the entire year as the backup catcher, but if Gimenez can get Darvish to the North Side, then this will be a great move.

David Ross part two? Let’s all hope so.

Chicago Bears Senior Bowl History Proves Fans Should Care More

By
Erik Lambert
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Jan 28, 2016; Mobile, AL, USA; South squad offensive guard Cody Whitehair of Kansas State (55) battles offensive tackle Spencer Drango of Baylor (58) during a drill during Senior Bowl practice at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Glenn Andrews-USA TODAY Sports

Fans aren’t really giving much attention to the Chicago Bears Senior Bowl buzz. Why should they right? It’s not free agency. It’s not the draft. There isn’t much incentive to watch the practices and games. Except that couldn’t be further from the truth, and the team brass know this. Word has already come down that both GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy will be present in Birmingham for every moment of the festivities.

They understand that this week of football action is in fact more valuable than any other during the lead up to the NFL draft in April. That includes the scouting combine and the pro days. This is because it gives them a chance to see many top prospects (and some hidden gems) handle NFL-level coaching, practices and game situations.

One can’t say the Bears haven’t used it to their advantage recently. Starting center Cody Whitehair was their most valuable find to date. Linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski has also proven a quality scoop as well. What many fans may not be grasping though is that some of the most important players in franchise history have come up via the Senior Bowl.

Chicago Bears Senior Bowl alum is a who’s who of former greats

Truth be told this event hasn’t really become a thing among fans until the past few years as the pre-draft process became more and more magnified. However its important, especially to Chicago became huge as far back as the 1970s. It was at the 1975 Senior Bowl where the Bears brass got a close look at a young running back out of tiny Jackson State named Walter Payton.

A few years later new head coach Mike Ditka and GM Jim Finks were hoping to get a quarterback. Down in Birmingham they had a chance to see a skinny kid from BYU name Jim McMahon in action. In 2000 the Bears weren’t sure where they’d go with their #9 overall pick. That is until a mammoth safety from New Mexico named Brian Urlacher started going through drills and game action.

Three years later the same thing happened again, this time with a brass kid out of Arizona who called himself Lance Briggs. Last but not least? A smooth, versatile running back from Tulane took home MVP honors in 2008. That was really the first people had truly heard of Matt Forte.

Suffice to say the Senior Bowl has been good to the Bears in years past. It’s been at its best when they have good eyes in the front office as they seem to do now with Pace. Could the next superstar be laying in wait for them at this year’s festivities? Maybe you should tune in to find out. That way when the draft rolls around you might have an idea of just what this team is getting.

How Andy Reid Assistants Did In First Years Bodes Well for 2018 Bears

By
Erik Lambert
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2018 bears

Matt Nagy is about to take center stage for the 2018 Bears. GM Ryan Pace took a calculated gamble on the 39-year old. Nagy comes from an Arena League background and has only been an offensive coordinator for two years in the NFL. He’s not the most well-traveled coach either, spending his entire pro run under the same mentor. The good news is that mentor is the best there is at cultivating future head coaches.

Andy Reid remains one of the best head coaches in the business. He hasn’t even turned 60-years old yet and already has made the playoffs 13 times in his career. For an idea of how significant that is? The Bears have reached the playoffs 14 times in the entire Super Bowl era. Reid has done it since 1999. In that time he’s planted a series of seeds across the league in the form of several quality head coaches.

Nagy is the latest in that line to get his opportunity. What fans are eager to know is how swift his impact might be. Based on collected evidence, they might be in for a surprise.

Bears 2018 hopes looking bright based on the Reid factor

To date four assistants have gone directly from an Andy Reid coaching staff to a head coaching position of their own. On average the immediate results were pretty favorable. Two of the four coaches went to the playoffs their first year. One finished with the same record as the previous season and only one saw his team regress.

Brad Childress (Minnesota Vikings)

  • 2005:  9-7
  • 2006:  6-10

John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens)

  • 2007:  5-11
  • 2008:  11-5

Doug Pederson (Philadelphia Eagles)

  • 2015:  7-9
  • 2016:  7-9

Sean McDermott (Buffalo Bills)

  • 2016:  7-9
  • 2017:  9-7

This is actually quite a crop of coaches as it stands. Childress may have struggled his first year but he was 8-8 his second season and in the playoffs by his third. Harbaugh of course won the Super Bowl in Baltimore. Pederson is now in the Super Bowl with Philadelphia during his second season. McDermott broke a playoff drought in Buffalo that had lasted since 1999. Suffice to say this is a quality tree the Bears plucked from.

The fact that Reid himself said he believes Nagy might be the best of the bunch? That makes it even harder not to be excited about 2018. The steps ahead are simple but not easy. He must do what he was hired first and foremost to. That’s improve an offense that finished 30th in the NFL. That doesn’t just mean making Mitch Trubisky better. It means making them all better.

Together with a Vic Fangio defense, the odds favor a considerable improvement on the 5-11 record they fielded this past season.

An Old Friend Sold Bears Ownership on Matt Nagy as Head Coach

By
Erik Lambert
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matt nagy

Chicago Bears ownership trusted GM Ryan Pace to make the call on who the next head coach would be. It became apparent from Pace’s research early on that Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy could be the guy. However, he had to make sure he got as many opinions as possible. Not a bad plan considering the importance of this search.

Team president Ted Phillips was a point man in helping Pace make phone calls to people around the league, gauging opinions on Nagy as a person and a coach. As it turns out the Bears got a huge vote of confidence from a trusted, familiar source. According to Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog, the same man who broke the Harry Hiestand hire, Nagy got a major sales pitch from colleague and former Bears special teams coach Dave Toub.

“Per a source, one of Phillips’ first calls was to Dave Toub on Matt Nagy and Toub gave a substantial, effusive endorsement of the Chiefs offensive coordinator. That endorsement went a long way with ownership and is a major reason the Bears landed their first-choice coach quickly.”

My own sources corroborated this story. It seems the Bears called Toub initially to gauge his interest in interviewing for the head coaching job. Toub politely turned it down so they talked to him about Nagy. He spoke at length about his fellow coaches’ qualifications. It’s unknown if that pitch was ultimately what got Nagy the job, but it certainly streamlined the process.

Toub connection to Bears ownership likely got them on Pace’s side

The one thing Toub had above other references in this case was credibility. Phillips and the McCaskey family know not only his work but the man himself well. Toub was the best special teams coordinator in football during his time in Chicago from 2004 to 2012. His work with Devin Hester alone made them loads of money by putting butts in the seats.

Pace no doubt had them intrigued by Nagy, but the word of Toub was likely a clincher to making things go so smoothly. One mustn’t forget he has worked with several future top NFL head coaches. Need a reminder? Here’s a recap:

  • Brad Childress (reached NFC championship in Minnesota)
  • Ron Rivera (reached Super Bowl in Carolina)
  • Leslie Frazier (made playoffs in Minnesota)
  • Sean McDermott (made playoffs in Buffalo)
  • John Harbaugh (won Super Bowl in Baltimore)
  • Doug Pederson (reached Super Bowl in Philadelphia)

This isn’t counting him going to a Super Bowl with Lovie Smith in Chicago. The guy has long since learned what a good head coach looks like. So for him to give such an enthusiastic endorsement for Nagy? That has to be a good sign for the Bears.

White Sox Land Five Prospects on B.A.’s Top-100 With Some Fresh Faces

By
Matt Enuco
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Dunning closed the season with a 2.94 earned run average.
Dane Dunning and Alec Hansen are new additions to the White Sox stable of top-100 prospects. (Photo credit: Baseball America)

With SoxFest on the horizon and a stalled free-agent market, fans will take any nugget of baseball news they can find. Baseball America released their top-100 prospect list on Monday morning and the White Sox boast five names on this roster.

Surprisingly, other teams placed more prospects on B.A.’s top-100 but the White Sox graduated Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez to the big leagues last season and Shohei Ohtani’s swing to the States easily forced a few prospects down the list. Still, the names you expect to see on this list are there and a few others appear as well.

Eloy Jimenez — #4

This is not surprising to anyone. After joining the White Sox organization in the Jose Quintana trade with the Cubs, Jimenez rocketed through the minors and is poised to start at Double-A in 2018. Despite his swelling confidence and prognostications about his readiness for a big-league promotion, he’s still at least half a season away from debuting in Chicago.

Jimenez was No. 14 on B.A.’s 2016 top -100 and shot up the rankings based on a breakout year. He slaughtered Carolina-League pitching and held his pace at Double-A late in the season. But Jimenez couldn’t crack the top three because Ronald Acuna, Ohtani and Vladimer Guerrero Jr. edge him out in tools.

Michael Kopech — #11

Kopech is the most electrifying pitcher in the White Sox organization. He can blow the doors off any hitter and some scouts have said he could survive in the majors right now. Kopech features an upper-90s fastball and survived his first full season without incident or injury in 2017. He earned a late season promotion to Triple-A and barring a derailment of epic proportions, Kopech is likely to makes his major-league debut in 2018. Despite dominant stuff, Kopech has to show more command of all of his pitches and continue to learn how to use them.

Alec Hansen — #57

One of the most prolific facial expressions while pitching, Hansen was all but forgotten by the time draft day came around in 2016. He started the season as the feature arm for Oklahoma at the beginning of the season and fell out of favor quickly after control issues surfaced. Hansen is so tall and lanky that scouts probably questioned whether he could repeat his delivery. But 2017 was the season Hansen put those questions behind him. He lead the minors in strikeouts and put together several gems while demonstrating depth in his pitches. Most impressively, he never let the wheels fall off in any of his starts. Hansen is likely to start in Double-A, a major test for him on his quest to the majors.

Luis Robert — #58

You want tools, Robert has all of them. The only reason Robert is so far down this list is because he hadn’t played for almost a year after defecting from Cuba and hasn’t played a single game in the continental United States. Robert took his first trip to Arizona this past week for a minicamp and the video that surfaced on Instagram was impressive. There is some serious pop in his bat and his hands are electrifying. Robert will move up this list quickly given his tremendous set of tools.

Dane Dunning — #82

Dunning has played second fiddle for most of his baseball life. At the University of Florida he was the swiss army knife of the pitching staff, covering spot starts as needed and dealing from the bullpen as his regular duties. Dunning was one of the lesser known pieces acquired from the Nationals in the Adam Eaton trade but he quickly made a name for himself with the White Sox fan base. More surgical than explosive, Dunning won’t light up a radar gun but he will expand the strike zone, confuse hitters with an array of pitches and showcase a fearless presence on the mound. With an arsenal of flame-throwing starters, Dunning will be an exciting contrast to watch in Chicago.

People Are Ignoring How Good Mark Helfrich Will Be for Jordan Howard

By
Erik Lambert
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chicago bears running backs
Credit: AP

The moment Mark Helfrich was hired as new Chicago Bears offensive coordinator, the buzz began. This was the man who oversaw the direct development of Marcus Mariota at Oregon. With his help the QB became a Heisman winner, a #2 overall pick and now a playoff-winning quarterback in the NFL. Accomplishments like that are why fans drool over the prospect of combining Helfrich with Mitch Trubisky.

After all Trubisky has a number of the same qualities that made Mariota great. He’s athletic and mobile, a down-to-earth worker, and an accurate passer. Helfrich understands the type of offense that can make such a player successful. It’s a matter of just implement parts of it along with head coach Matt Nagy to get the scheme they want.

However, this QB love fest has totally overlooked another fact about the Helfrich hire. He might end up being just as good for Jordan Howard.

Mark Helfrich will reignite underutilized strength of Howard’s game

Oregon ran spread offense concepts at Oregon. One would think that this meant they were chucking the ball everywhere. Especially with a talent like Mariota on the field. In truth though people forget how often (and how well) the Ducks ran the football in those days. From 2009 to 2016, Helfrich produced five seasons where one of his running backs topped the 1,500 yards rushing mark.

A lot of that success came courtesy of the run-pass option. This is where the quarterback is in shotgun and the running back is to his right or left. On the snap the quarterback goes for a handoff. Depending on how the defense reacts he either hands it to the rusher, tucks and runs himself or goes for play action to a receiver. It can be a maddening style of offense to defend, particularly if the running back is good running out of shotgun.

It just so happens that Howard is just that. Pro Football Focus revealed that the two-time Pro Bowler is highly productive when given the ball from that alignment.

YearAlignmentCarriesYardsYPCTD
2016Shotgun946577.00
2016QB Under Center1586564.26
2016Behind fullback311183.85
2017Shotgun351785.14
2017QB Under Center2419443.95
2017Behind fullback852773.32

 

In other words Howard has averaged a whopping 6.05 yards per carry running out of the shotgun formation. The fact the Bears only did it 35 times in 2017 despite having a mobile QB like Trubisky for 12 of those games? That’s criminal negligence.

Helfrich and Nagy almost certain to correct this problem

What makes Howard so good in this style? One thing about is not speed or agility. That’s often a big misconception. Running out of shotgun requires a back that has both vision and decisiveness. They have to be able to see the hole and not hesitate getting downhill. Otherwise the defense will get into the backfield and likely make a stop for a big loss. Howard has no such problem.

Both Helfrich and Nagy are huge proponents of the run-pass option style of offense. Given the success its seen for the Philadelphia Eagles en route to the Super Bowl, it is easy to understand why. Howard is already dangerous as he is. If the Bears can maximize one of the things he does best? That’s a scary thought.

Bears History Says Matt Nagy’s First Draft Pick Likely Predicts His Future

By
Erik Lambert
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matt nagy and ryan pace

Ryan Pace made it clear he’s the one picking the players for the Chicago Bears in the draft. That will not change. At the same time, he’s said from the beginning that all picks are made in collaboration with the coaching staff. So new head coach Matt Nagy will have direct input on the players selected. That is why this upcoming draft is so interesting.

People may not know this but Bears history has a funny way of being interconnected. Specifically this is true in regards to head coaches and their first ever draft picks. Almost universally the player that each coach picked became a symbol for his tenure. It might be hard to believe but just look at the list going back to the drafts’ inception in 1936.

  • John Fox:  Kevin White
  • Marc Trestman:  Kyle Long
  • Lovie Smith:  Tommie Harris
  • Dick Jauron:  Cade McNown
  • Dave Wannstedt:  Curtis Conway
  • Mike Ditka:  Jim McMahon
  • Neill Armstrong:  Brad Shearer
  • Jack Pardee:  Walter Payton*
  • Abe Gibron:  Lionel Antoine
  • Jim Dooley:  Mike Hull
  • Paddy Driscoll:  Menan Schriewer
  • Hunk Anderson/Luke Johnsos:  Frankie Albert
  • George Halas:  Joe Stydahar

Look at this list and connect the dots. Kevin White is looking like one of the biggest draft disappointments in Bears history. John Fox had the second-worst winning percentage among any head coach they’ve had. By contrast George Halas picked a Hall of Famer in Joe Stydahar. Mike Ditka picked Pro Bowler Jim McMahon. The big exception is Jack Pardee taking Walter Payton but that doesn’t count because Pardee resigned after his third year.

Matt Nagy proved he can build a staff but can he recognize talent?

The good news is it looks like Nagy has an eye for talent. Well coaching talent at least. He was smart enough to retain Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator. Also the hires of Harry Hiestand and Mark Helfrich to his offensive staff show tons of promise. Of course recognizing coaches and players are two different things. At this point it’s impossible to know whether Nagy understands what the truly good ones look like.

That said there is reason for optimism. Since Nagy took over as offensive coordinator in Kansas City, the Chiefs scored big twice in later rounds on offensive players. In 2016 they swiped receiver Tyreek Hill in the fifth round. This past April they scooped running back Kareem Hunt in the third. Both are Pro Bowlers.

Combined with Pace, who’s had some success recently it stands to reason the Bears might be in good shape. Still, their run of luck with early picks has been scattered of late. White was a dud. Floyd is good but can’t stay healthy. Trubisky remains an unknown. Nagy has to help them remove any doubts by scoring a big hit with his first crack.

How The 2018 Bears In-House Free Agents Will Likely Be Handled

By
Erik Lambert
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2018 bears in-house free agents

Everybody is already talking about free agency in March. That’s understandable. Most fans have already seen their teams get eliminated from the playoffs. They’re in off-season mode and the real off-season begins when free agency goes active. However, GMs like Ryan Pace have a ton of work to do before then. Biggest on his agenda is the 2018 Bears in-house free agents.

He must go through every single contract that is expiring and make a list. Who is a priority and who isn’t coming back? A new coaching staff led by Matt Nagy will make some of those decisions a little unclear. That said it isn’t too hard to separate the players in terms which are most likely to come back and which are gone.

Here is a breakdown of every name that is set to become available. The Bears will have upwards of $40 million in salary cap space this year. That’s not counting likely releases and cap rollover. So money won’t be an issue for them. It is merely a matter of determining who has the most value to their future.

Franchise Tag

Kyle Fuller (CB)

There is only one player the Bears should even remotely consider for the franchise tag. Even then it’s a slight stretch. That’s Kyle Fuller. The former first round pick seemed to find himself in 2017. He picked off two passes, defended 22 others and finished second on the team in tackles. He’s turning 26 this year and entering his prime. This is not the sort of player the Bears want to let get away. Not when he’s starting to play his best football.

Priorities

Cameron Meredith (WR)

It looked like he was poised for a big year before he suffered his unfortunate knee injury. Even with that Meredith is a restricted free agent, so keeping him won’t be difficult. He still has plenty of upside and could make for a quality target Mitch Trubisky can exploit.

Kendall Wright (WR)

Sure he wasn’t exactly spectacular but Wright was the leading receiver on the roster this year (614 yards) and nobody else was close. The guy was given a crummy situation and made the best of it. Trubisky seems to trust him too and that’s worth bringing him back.

Lamarr Houston (EDGE)

How’s this for a stat? Houston finished third on the team this season with four sacks. He did that despite only playing five games, having not actually been on the roster for most of the year. It’s proof that he works well in Vic Fangio’s defense when healthy and must return. Especially given the iffy situation at pass rusher.

Prince Amukamara (CB)

Fuller may have gotten the love but Amukamara deserves credit for the quality year he had as well. The veteran didn’t post eye-popping numbers but he was steady and dependable in coverage all season. It’s unclear how much money he’s seeking, but it shouldn’t be too much.

Christian Jones (ILB)

This is a difficult one to gauge. Jones more than earned a new contract with how well he played this season in place of the injured Jerrell Freeman. However, with Freeman’s uncertain return and the presence of Nick Kwiatkoski who also played well it’s difficult to know whether the Bears are willing to pay to get him back. They should though.

Bryce Callahan (CB)

Perhaps the most frustrating player with an expiring deal. When Callahan is healthy he’s proven to be a rock solid corner on defense, especially in the slot. The problem is he has a lengthy history of injury problems, many of the soft tissue variety. Bringing him back is a gamble but losing him would hurt too.

Sherrick McManis (CB)

McManis isn’t going to be a starting corner for the Bears but he remains a cornerstone member of their special teams. Each time he was forced to leave a game due to injury, they noticed his absence. There is no reason not to bring him back.

50/50

Dontrelle Inman (WR)

He was a trade deadline flier who at least helped settle the position down. He could be brought back cheap but then again he also showcased some serious drop issues.

Mark Sanchez (QB)

The Bears should want to retain Sanchez. Not only is he an able veteran backup but he also has a strong connection as mentor to Trubisky. Whether he’s open to that role is unknown.

Tom Compton (OG)

In terms of being a backup Compton was excellent in 2017. He fulfilled his job admirably. If he’d be willing to continue that role he’s absolutely worth bringing back.

Mitch Unrein (DE)

He never gets the attention because he doesn’t get a lot of sacks but Unrein has proven to be a solid, reliable veteran. Will that continue as he pushes into his 30s?

Sam Acho (EDGE)

Not only a reliable reserve and veteran, Acho has done a marvelous job representing the team off the field. Bringing him back won’t cripple anything, but age is a factor.

Benny Cunningham (RB)

He was both a nice third running back behind Howard and Cohen and also a valuable piece on special teams. Whether the new coaching staff sees a place for him is the problem.

John Jenkins (DE)

Depth along the defensive line is never a bad thing. Jenkins seemed to mesh well in the system even though he didn’t produce a lot. Will be 29 this year.

Bradley Sowell (OT)

Like Compton he was a decent blocker when called upon due to an injury to a starter. He may try to seek out a starting job but if not there’s no reason not to keep him.

Cairo Santos (K)

It’s unfortunate. Santos was never truly healthy in 2017. He’s actually a good kicker when not in constant pain. It should be worth giving him another chance.

Pat O’Donnell (P)

Could the Bears do better than O’Donnell at punter? Yes they can. That said he’s proven to at least be more consistent than years past so best to retain him until a better one arrives.

John Timu (ILB)

He’ll never be a starter in the league but Timu has a place as a dependable backup. Every time the Bears have asked, he’s stepped up. A player like that has value.

Daniel Brown (TE)

The fate of Dion Sims and Zach Miller will play a huge role is how things play out for Brown. He’s not a star but he has some pass catching ability that can be valuable.

Gone

  • Mike Nugent (K)
  • Josh Bellamy (WR)
  • Andrew DePaola (LS)
  • Zach Miller (TE)

Miller is such an unfortunate case because he’s a good player. He just can’t stay healthy and the knee injury he suffered in New Orleans may have been career-ending. Nugent was merely an emergency option at kicker as was DePaola at long snapper. Bellamy has moved in and out of the starting lineup the past two years but remains as he’s always been. Nothing special. With a new offensive staff in place his time is likely up.

Steve Kerr Is A Fred Hoiberg Fan And That Means Something

By
Patrick Mooney
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Dec 23, 2016; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr walks onto the court before the game against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports ORG XMIT: USATSI-324248 ORIG FILE ID: 20161223_sal_ai5_036.JPG

The Bulls kicked off a three game road trip with an easy win last evening in Atlanta, but that was hardly the biggest Bulls storyline of this week.

In one week, we saw Zach Lavine score 18 points in just 20 minutes in his second game of the season, Kris Dunn get concussed and the Bulls put up 66 points in a half against the defending champs. Yet it was the comments made throughout the week from the Warriors head coach Steve Kerr that generated the most buzz in Chicago.

“I think we share a lot of the same vision for the game: spacing and ball movement and everybody touching the ball, feeling part of it. He knows his stuff,” Kerr said of Hoiberg. “In this league it takes talent and it takes the right fit and I feel like it’s happening for them now. I know it’s taken a couple of years to get to this point, but in this league fit is everything.”

According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, Kerr’s respect of Hoiberg is not new.

Kerr inherited a pretty good situation in Golden State. The Warriors were coming off of back to back playoff appearances win and they had Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green under team control for several years.

The coach he replaced, current ESPN broadcaster Mark Jackson, was well liked by both fans and his players. That didn’t stop management from making a decision to move on to a more forward thinking coach.

In 2014, Jackson’s last season as head coach, the Warriors were 12th in the league in Offensive rating and averaged 24 threes a game. In Kerr’s first three years, Golden State has led the NBA in Offensive rating and averages just about 30 threes a game.

The Bulls had excellent regular season success under Tom Thibodeau during his five year tenure, but the damaged reputation between him and the Bulls front office was well documented, and a driving force of that friction was Thibodeau’s general stubbornness and refusal to change. In his last season as Bulls head coach, the Bulls were 21st in the league in PACE and shot just 22.3 threes a game, good for 16th in the league. Hoiberg was brought in to change that.

Hoiberg’s first two seasons did not provide the fun, fast paced offense Bulls fans were promised. However, it’s looking more and more clear that the slow, stagnant isolation style of basketball that Jimmy Butler, Dwanye Wade and Derrick Rose preferred to play is more to blame for the Bulls disappointing offensive results the past two years than Hoiberg’s lack of creativity.

“I think in Fred’s case, he had a team last year that was really difficult to create offense for because there was no spacing and very few shooters. I thought he did an amazing job getting them into position to even win a first-round playoff series,” Kerr said of Hoiberg. “They had some talent, but it didn’t feel like the puzzle fit together to me. This year, the puzzle fits beautifully. They’re starting to build a roster that fits Fred’s offense and his vision. You can see it’s starting to click.”

“Is Fred that much better of a coach now than he was a year ago? No, he has different personnel. I know this is going come as a surprise, but if I didn’t have (Kevin) Durant, (Stephen) Curry and (Klay) Thompson, people wouldn’t say, ‘Man, you run a great offense.’ They would say, ‘Why can’t you coach?’ We’re all beholden to our talent.”

Now that the Bulls have a younger, less selfish core of players, Hoiberg’s message seems to be getting across more clearly. Last season the Bulls averaged just 22.3 three’s a game, the same as they did in Thibodeau’s last season, which finished second to last in the league. They were also 20th in the league in PACE, which was worse than Thibodeau’s 2015 Bulls. This season, the Bulls are 8th in the league in three point attempts with 30.5, 12th in the league in PACE and 4th in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.

I don’t want to sound like I’m getting ahead of myself, the Bulls are far from finished. They still rank all the way down at 28th in offensive rating (although they’ve been much better in that category since Mirotic returned) and the roster is likely to be stripped down a bit at the trade deadline, which will make the team’s offensive numbers look worse by years end.

But, the Bulls appear to have three legitimate pieces in place in Dunn, Lavine and Markkanen (whom Steph Curry couldn’t stop gushing about), plenty of cap space and are set to have another top 10 pick. For all of the negative attention and criticism this organization receives, both locally and nationally, the Bulls are in a better place than any of us imagined they would be just a few short months ago. For that, Fred Hoiberg is deserving of all of the credit that people such as Steve Kerr are giving him.

Andy Reid Influence Might Alter Bears 2018 Draft Strategy

By
Erik Lambert
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matt nagy
Credit: AP

Matt Nagy comes directly from the Andy Reid coaching tree. There is not another head coach in the NFL he’s ever worked for. Nagy came up in 2008 as a coaching intern for the Philadelphia Eagles. He later followed Reid to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013. That style of coaching and management is all he knows. So it stands to reason Nagy will take much of what he learned and apply it to how he runs the Chicago Bears.

This includes a strategy on how to attack the NFL draft. Now it was made clear before the head coaching search even started. GM Ryan Pace holds the final decision over the 53-man roster. That hasn’t changed. That said he’s also made it clear that it will be a collaborative effort between himself and Nagy to find the best possible players for this team.

Pace may pick the actual players, but Nagy will have say in the types of players he wants. He also likely will place a priority on which position groups he wants given the most attention. Every coach can be different in this regard. Some may prefer going after the skill positions early. Others might like to keep it simple with the big uglies on the lines.

To figure out where Nagy might lean, one must look to the man who mentored him in Reid.

Bears 2018 draft strategy may actually benefit from Reid influence

Reid became a head coach in 1999 with the Eagles. He was fired in 2013 and quickly scooped up by Kansas City. In that time his teams have made a total of 16 picks in the first round of the draft. I looked back through the history and pinpointed which positions were targeted. Then I compiled how many times each one saw early action. The results that came back were fairly conclusive.

  • Quarterback – 2
  • Cornerback – 2
  • Edge Rusher – 3
  • Offensive Line – 3
  • Defensive Line – 4
  • Wide Receiver – 2

Of those 16 picks made, 10 of them ended up being for players who primarily focused at the line of scrimmage. Either linemen or pass rushers. Also none of the cornerbacks or wide receivers taken were top 10 picks. In other words given how high the Bears are drafting it’s a safe bet they’ll be going after an edge rusher or a lineman.

Not like this is a poor strategy either. To date four of the 10 players Reid drafted with this strategy ended up a Pro Bowler or an All-Pro. Another three became long-term (3+ seasons starting) contributors in their various roles. That’s a solid hit rate.

Early draft breakdowns hint that the 2018 class will have some intriguing talent in the trenches and at edge rusher. With both cornerback and wide receiver looking weak, this leans heavily towards the idea that Pace, Nagy and the brass will follow the Reid blueprint in hopes of getting an instant impact player to help the team win.

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